Diário da Assembléia.
Speech by Congressman Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira on Father Anchieta, at the
Constituent Assembly, Rio de Janeiro, March 17, 1934

Reflecting the unanimous sentiment of the population of São Paulo, which,
in addition to recognizing in Anchieta a reason of legitimate pride for
the whole of Brazil, feels especially close to him for the glorious role
he played in the foundation of Sao Paulo;

Whereas
on March 19, the Brazilian people, justly enthusiastic, will celebrate the
Fourth Centenary of Anchieta with jubilant celebrations highly expressive
of the admiration they have for the Apostle of the New World;

Whereas
the Provisional Government has already associated itself to these
celebrations by declaring March 19 a national holiday;

Whereas
the Constituent Assembly, in its turn, cannot fail to render homage with
admiration to the merits and services of Father José de Anchieta,
indelibly inscribed with gratitude in all Brazilian hearts:

We
request that in the minutes of today’s works, the Constituent Assembly
record the profound recognition of the Brazilian Nation to him who
dedicated all the treasures of his invincible virtue and fruitful
ingenuity, raising our history, right from its first pages, to a degree of
beauty that no other nation, not even among the most famous and ancient,
can boast of having surpassed.

Mr.
President –
The noble Congressman is allowed to speak and lead the vote.

Mr.
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira (to lead the vote) reads this speech:

Mr.
President: Having received from the bench to which I am honored to belong,
the task of briefly directing the vote, I want to point out before this
August Assembly the timeliness and entire reasonableness of paying a
special tribute to Anchieta, I was gripped by the harrowing persuasion
that I had an impossible task.

Indeed,
would it not be a temerity to praise virtues to which the admiration of
the Brazilian people has already reached an apogee; to magnify deeds and
results which have already produced the greatest of glorifications, in
such a way that a most eloquent voice becomes weak in the face of events
which raise his praise above any praise; is it not reckless to do so,
especially in the midst of an Assembly in which so many illustrious minds
have already applied their talent to celebrate Anchieta in works of
undeniable value?

Involuntarily, there came to my mind the question that the Apostle of the
New World placed in the introduction to the poem he wrote on the white
sand of a São Paulo beach, “Sileam an loquar, Sanctissima Mater.”

He knew
how to find his own accents to praise the highest of creatures, the One
who, sung by the prophets before her birth, was called Blessed by all the
generations that followed.

Shall I
also look for new words to celebrate him who, in the greatness of his
virtues and in the power of his genius, appears to be a living blessing
from the One whom he sung with such love?

No.
Praise is necessary only when forgetfulness begins to cover with its moss
a glorious memory, or when slander covers with mud an immaculate
reputation.

Neither
oblivion nor calumny can diminish the brightness of Anchieta’s glory.
Today, he shines like a sun in the zenith of Brazilian History.

His
figure stands at the wellhead of our history, presiding over the formation
of nationality, with his heroic vigor and virtue as a saint.

Similar
figures, who we see at the source of a great number of famous nations,
usually shine with the aggressive ardor of wild and implacable heroes,
conquering celebrity, now in just wars, now in unqualified acts of prey.

Their
existence is debated, and their grandeurs are fantasies woven by
nationalistic pride, which dissipate entirely with an impartial study of
history. And this is true from Romulus all the way to William Tell.

Anchieta, on the contrary, entered History in a triumphal carriage that
was not pulled by prisoners and the vanquished; it was not a cortege
displaying pain, or playing war hymns to celebrate his triumph; nor was he
vested in a coat of armor.

Mr.
Arruda Falcão –
Anchieta’s illustrious figure is renewed in every step of our history.

Mr.
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira -
He was dressed in the white tunic of his immaculate innocence.

In his
peaceful procession was a race he had drawn out of the wild and defended
against captivity; an entire Nation which he helped to build for the
greater glory of God, softening the rancor of men and beasts to fulfill
the Gospel promise: ‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the
earth.’

I
expressed myself poorly, Mr. President, when I said that no pain had
appeared in his triumphal procession: pain was the aura that surrounded
him. His was the Christian pain of the pelican, which fills martyr and
saint with bitterness, but bathes in suavity all those who approach them.

He had
spent his life distributing roses...and kept the thorns for himself, in
the labors of the apostolate.

In
Anchieta, vas electionis [vase of election], there sprouted a flower of
virtue which he sowed all over Brazil: it is the gentle meekness linked to
the serene yet inexorable energy which is the axis of our soul.

In his
book on Anchieta, says Celso Vieira, there is a mountain on Canary Island
from the summit of which the traveler can see, thanks to a curious visual
phenomenon, his own figure projected in seven colors on the sky; a
magnificent vision of glory.

Anchieta is the culminating figure of our History. And the visual
phenomenon that Celso Vieira describes is nothing but a grandiose symbol
of his own destiny and that of the Nation he was to found.

At the
present moment, in its historical journey, Brazil has reached a
culmination from which you see at the same time, tortuous paths that lead
to dark valleys, and luminous paths pointing to new climbs.

It is
fitting, then, that at this hour of tremendous responsibility, we should
temper our fiber in a grateful contemplation of the greatest figure of our
past; and turning our gaze from the abysses that call us, lift up our eyes
to God with confidence, seeing projected in seven colors, on the sky of
the future, our motherland exalted by the full accomplishment of her
providential historical mission.